Visiting a parish in Rome, the pope preached on the Transfiguration and Abraham\u2019s journey of faith.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV spent Sunday afternoon with parishioners in Rome\u2019s Quarticciolo neighborhood, meeting young people and families touched by addiction before celebrating Mass and urging Catholics to embrace what he called \u201cthe logic of unconditional love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pope arrived shortly before 4 p.m. at the Parish of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ and was welcomed by Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, along with the parish pastor and faithful gathered in the courtyard of the oratory.<\/p>\n
Leo began by greeting parishioners one by one and then sat down with young people involved in a local initiative known as \u201cMagis.\u201d A message painted on a wall captured the tone of the visit: \u201cThose who love go forward.\u201d One young person described the group\u2019s identity as \u201cfraternity\u201d as the pope exchanged gifts and embraced members of the community.<\/p>\n
In remarks during the encounter, Leo spoke of his concern about the conflict in the Middle East, mentioning children killed in the war in Gaza. He also pointed to a local crisis closer to home: drug abuse that, he said, continues to wound the Quarticciolo area. The visit included time with the sick and elderly, as well as mothers of people struggling with addiction, reflecting the neighborhood\u2019s hardships and hopes.<\/p>\n
During Mass, the pontiff\u2019s homily turned to the Transfiguration and to Abraham, whom he held up as a model for believers learning to trust God on an uncertain path.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Abraham, each of us can recognize ourselves on a journey,\u201d he said, describing life as a road that requires confidence in God\u2019s word \u2014 and sometimes the courage to \u201cleave everything.\u201d The temptation, he warned, is to treat uncertainty as something to escape, instead of a place where God\u2019s promise can be discovered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens every day \u2014 because the world thinks this way \u2014 that we measure everything, we strain to keep everything under control,\u201d Leo said. \u201cBut in this way we lose the chance to discover the true treasure, the precious pearl \u2026 which God has hidden in our field as a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the disciples and the road to Jerusalem, the pope said their lesson was that true blessing comes only by moving beyond self-protection and accepting what Jesus reveals in the Eucharist: the willingness to offer one\u2019s life for others.<\/p>\n
Sunday worship, he added, is not an interruption of that mission but a rest stop that re-centers the journey. The Lord gathers his people, he said, to strengthen them \u201cnot to stop and not to change direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leo also returned to St. Peter\u2019s impulse to \u201cstop\u201d and \u201ccontrol\u201d events \u2014 a way of thinking he said can resemble clinging to a dream. The Transfiguration, he said, points instead to the destination: \u201ca new world\u201d filled with light, with the human and divine face of Christ.<\/p>\n
For that reason, he told parishioners, the essential task is to listen to Jesus.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe travels with us, even today, to teach us in this city the logic of unconditional love,\u201d the pope said, calling believers to lay down the defensive posture that can become \u201can offense.\u201d \u201cLet us listen to him \u2026 to become light of the world \u2014 beginning with the neighborhood where we live.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pope said the Gospel also entrusts the parish with a concrete mission in a place facing \u201cnumerous and complex problems\u201d: to cultivate a gaze of faith that \u201ctransfigures everything with hope,\u201d and to put \u201cpassion, sharing, and creativity\u201d into circulation as a way of tending the neighborhood\u2019s wounds.<\/p>\n
He cited the parish\u2019s motto, \u201cLet\u2019s build community,\u201d urging an open-armed welcome \u201cto everyone, truly everyone.\u201d He also highlighted the \u201cMagis\u201d program, linking it to St. Ignatius of Loyola\u2019s call to seek the \u201cmore\u201d \u2014 a challenge to young people to reject mediocrity and choose a courageous, authentic life rooted in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we realize that so many things around us are not right, sometimes we start to ask: Does what we\u2019re doing even make sense?\u201d Leo said, warning against discouragement. \u201cIt is precisely in the face of the mystery of evil that we must bear witness to our identity as Christians,\u201d he said, by making God\u2019s kingdom visible in the places and times where believers live.<\/p>\n
Father Daniele Canali, the parish priest, said the visit was the third by a pope to the community: St. John XXIII came on March 3, 1963, and St. John Paul II visited on Feb. 3, 1980.<\/p>\n
Quarticciolo, on Rome\u2019s eastern outskirts, developed as a public housing project between 1939 and 1940 and later became a center of Resistance activity during World War II. The parish was established in 1948, the church completed in 1954, and today it is entrusted to the Dehonians, the Priests of the Sacred Heart founded by L\u00e9on Dehon.<\/p>\n
This story\u00a0was first published\u00a0by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n